You can buy a big-block chevvy power plant for not much cash, and stick it in whatever chassis you like, but you still need to obey the same speed limits and it guzzles fuel. I for one do not want Android if it means poor battery life. I made an exception with the DX100 purely because the SQ is so incredible. The DX100 battery life is a pain to live with, though. Partly due to the amp stage and partly due to the Android chip (which is single core, iirc).

People criticised the Cowon J3 GUI, but, overall, I think it's fantastic, considering how amazingly power-efficient the player is. I'd take it over power-hungry Android any day. The J3 proves you don't need Android in order to have a usable touchscreen GUI.

I wish more DAP makers would follow the lead of the J3 GUI (remember, it still includes hardware player controls, too, so you can control it without taking it out of your pocket, something which the DX100 fails to provide).

Anyway, we're digressing. Thankfully, James and Co. have had the good sense to steer clear of Android on the X3, and I hope they avoid Android for the X5, too.

And, just for the record, my phone (SG2) is Android, so this has nothing to do with me being some kind of Android hater, because I'm not.

^ Well, let us hope X5 sounds as good as DX100 so people would not pass it on simply because it has or has not a certain type of UI.

Let us not get away from our X5 topic by talking that much about Android DAPs. Enough discussion has been produced on Cowon's discontinued J3 vs. the current Z2 with Android. There are always lovers and haters of the same thing and both sides may have their own reasons.

^ Well, let us hope X5 sounds as good as DX100 so people would not pass it on simply because it has or has not a certain type of UI.

Let us not get away from our X5 topic by talking that much about Android DAPs. Enough discussion has been produced on Cowon's discontinued J3 vs. the current Z2 with Android. There are always lovers and haters of the same thing and both sides may have their own reasons.

for the lover of android based player, the best solution is wait our E18 which is a portable DAC/AMP designed for android phone, and them you will got an very decent Android phone with great quality like Galaxy S3, S4 and Note 2 or HTC one. and also an decent portable DAC/AMP

This thread is for discussion of Fiio X5, which is expected to be in production in end of 2013...

4. The exterior design of X5 is very V587 (I, as a native Chinese, do not understand this sentence). X5 has rudder-style touch buttons as control (not sure about this sentence either, it probably means "steering wheel-style touch-sensitive control buttons", but I am not sure). The exact details cannot be disclosed for now.

Well, it also took me (also a native Chinese) a while in figuring out what 'V587' stands for.

This literally means 'powerful' (V5 for 威武) and 'dominating' (87 for 霸气).

So the X5 will look spectacular for short.

I've subcribed to an X3 and have been waiting (impatiently) for over a month for its 1st batch delivery.

Can't wait to get my X3 and hopefully a good replacement to my IPC 3G.